Huawei may be facing a possible UK ban if it fails to pay 4G patent royalties. The ruling was delivered by The High Court of England and Wales for a suit filed by Unwired Planet International.
Unwired had filed a lawsuit against Huawei for infringing on its 4G patents. The court’s ruling says that Huawei must pay licensing fees to Unwired or face a ban of sales of its 4G phones in the UK.
Originally, the patents belonged to Ericsson before they were acquired by Unwired. Huawei had a licensing agreement with the former owner but failed to draw up a new one with Unwired.
The patents are essential to implement established communications standards, hence the royalties paid must be fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND). So Huawei’s initial offer of 0.034 percent of its revenues on 4G equipment doesn’t meet the FRAND standard neither does Unwired’s request for 1.49 per cent on 4G handsets and 2.29 per cent on Huawei’s 4G equipment.
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The court finally ruled after a lot of haggling that Huawei pays Unwired 0.051 per cent on 4G equipment and 0.052 on 4G phones.
(Source)
